Many digital camera and smart-phone devices now have panoramic image capture modes, but shooting in these modes still requires manual turning of the devices. Moreover, users can only generate quality images by operating within strict parameters related to image capture speed and level status of the camera.
During panoramic image acquisition, the camera needs to turn a full circle and capture a series of overlapping images at a plurality of image capture positions. These images are then stitched together to form a single continuous panoramic image. Depending on the content of the images being stitched together, and the amount of overlap in sequential images, it may be difficult to find a suitable stitching location for the images.
One solution is to take many images and have large overlap between images, but this results in undesirably slow image capturing and processing. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for dynamic image capturing of panoramic images that minimizes image capture and processing time, while also maximizing the stitching quality of successive images.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for an improved imaging system and method for adaptive panoramic image generation in an effort to overcome the aforementioned obstacles and deficiencies of conventional panoramic imaging systems and methods.